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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

For a Psychology assignment, I chose to study the effects of video game box art and how it can persuade people to purchase games. To illustrate my research, I decided to take one of my own games, Escape a Tower, and draft potential box art for it. Below are the two covers, one which appeals more to Americans and the other to the Japanese.

Escape a Tower Box Art (US) Escape a Tower Box Art (JP)

The idea is that Americans prefer visual action in box art to better stimulate their brains, while the Japanese prefer artistic representations of games. That's why the US version features a more evocative kidnapper and a determined protagonist while the JP version puts the environment at center stage.

My class audience during my presentation looked attentive, which probably means these self-created images brought the point effectively. Coincidentally, they also serve as an excellent way to celebrate the 100th blog post on this site. Thank you guys for motivating me to reach this far!

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Time for the next strategy guide! If you've utilized my tips and tricks for Button Masher and Keyboard Masher, welcome back. And If you've ever felt like you've needed some extra swiping assistance, you've made it to the right place. So without further ado, here are the Mouse Swipe strategies straight from the game creator.

Achievement Star Requirements

Blue star - Beat one of the beat the creator scores.

Green star - Beat every single beat the creator score.

Bronze star - Reach 1000 swipes (Experienced Swiper).

Silver star - Reach 5000 swipes (Stunning Swiper).

Gold star - Become a prestigious swiper (10,000 swipes).

The green star overwrites the blue star, and the gold star overwrites the silver star, which overwrites the bronze star.

Tips and Tricks

Use one hand. This should be self explanatory, but in case you thought you should use two hands because of Button Masher's two finger tactic, that logic does not work here.

Relax your swipes. Some players think they should make the shortest swipes they can to reduce the total swiping area. The problem with this is that it tenses up their hand more quickly, sometimes causing them to miss the vertical line. So while it is important to make short swipes, you should make expand them to the point when your hand feels comfortable.

Mouse or trackpad? Find the controller that works best for you and stick with it. Personally, I find the mouse easier to use, but your opinion could be different.

Play fast-paced music in the background. I've noticed when I do this, it makes my hands want to shake to the rhythm, boosting my scores. Give it a try!

Square Mode Tips - Relax your hand, especially in hard difficulty. The less tense your hand is, the more likely you'll be able to slide through the squares with ease.

Triangle Mode Tips - Here's a little secret: the triangles are actually squares. Here's a screenshot of what I mean:

As you can see, the orange area is all your cursor needs to hover at to score points. The triangle is just for decoration. Why did I make it like this? That's how the code works, and there isn't a way to restrict the hover spot to the triangle without some crazy scripting.So use this secret to your advantage. Instead of moving your cursor in a triangular fashion, make small circular movements near the center of the triangles. Once you get good at this, your cursor could never touch the left or right triangles ever again.

Motion Mode Tips - My advice is similar to Square Mode: relax your hand. Stay focused on your target, and remember that the squares speed up every 10 seconds.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Has PowerPoint been crashing on you every time you try to open one of my games? That's because of a recent Windows Update, labelled KB3097877. Intended to be a security update for Windows Vista, 7, and 8, KB3097877 crashes not only PowerPoint but all supported versions of Outlook as well.

Until Microsoft gets their act together, please uninstall KB3097877 if you want to play my PowerPoint games. Here's how:

Open Windows Update.

In the bottom of the left side bar, click on Installed Updates.

On the top right search box labelled Search Installed Updates, type KB3097877.

Right click the update that shows up and select Uninstall.

To prevent KB3097877 from installing again, you'll need to hide the update. To do this, right click it in your list of updates to install and select Hide update.

If you don't see KB3097887 when searching for installed updates, that means it's not installed, and you should be able to open my PowerPoint games properly. If you're using OS X or Windows 10, you may disregard this entire post.

I'll update this post as soon as I get more information about the PowerPoint crashes. Let's hope Microsoft doesn't screw things up again.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Some of you guys have expressed concerns about I am Thinking of a Number's redesign, particularly the new buttons. They looked jarring, too Button Masher like, and didn't suit the visual cues of the rest of the interface.

If you were one of those people, rest assured: I fixed the buttons. Here, take a look for yourself.

Did you notice the difference? Here's what I changed.

The button font now resembles the rest of the game's interface.

The button now has a gradient.*

Because of the gradient, button clicking looks more realistic.

* If you use Internet Explorer 8/9, Firefox 1-3.5, Chrome 1-3, Safari 1-5.0, or Opera 9-11.50, you'll still see the old button colors.

This should do it guys. The new layout should look a lot more coherent now.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Welcome to a new update for I am Thinking of a Number, the sophisticated number guesser. In the previous version, I improved on the game's mechanics, allowing players to guess more efficiently than ever before. Now, with this version, I focus on the game's appearance and design. Number guessing has never looked better than before!

So what has changed visually? Allow me to walk you through that.

New fonts. Out with the boring Arial font, in with the much improved fonts! The font you will see has been optimized for your operating system.

iOS 9 or OS X El Capitan Safari will use the San Francisco font.

Older versions of iOS/OS X or using Firefox/Chrome on a Mac will still use the Helvetica Neue font.

Windows will use the Tahoma font.*

Android will use the Roboto font.

Ubuntu will, surprise, use the Ubuntu font.

All other operating systems will use their sans-serif font.

New buttons. The game now uses stylized buttons, which should look more consistent than the previous default buttons.

New favicon. That 1k looks slightly different now.

New app icon. Shown above. The 1k now uses the San Francisco font and a new gradient background. This should look much better than the previous solid white design.

I hope that you too agree that the new design is a step in the right direction. If you want to reference the old layout, version 2.6.3 awaits you in the Archive.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

"Are you insane?" "What were you thinking?" "Are you mentally OK?" Yes I'm insane, I don't know what I was thinking, and I'm not sure if I'm mentally ok since I sacrificed exam study time to code this craziness.

Anyway, it turns out Escape a Tower's layout is actually basic enough to be supported on a plethora of ancient browsers, but the game wouldn't start on those browsers since they don't support Local Storage. By making a few tweaks to the Local Storage code, Escape a Tower now works to a minimal level on the following browsers:

Firefox 1-3.0

Chrome 1-3

Safari 3

Opera 9-10.0

Netscape 9 (Whoa.)

It might also work on Internet Explorer 7, Safari 1-2, or even older versions of Netscape (seriously?), but I'm unable to test those browsers.

If you're deranged enough to play on one of these browsers, you won't be able to save your progress. There may also be some formatting kinks, but they shouldn't interfere with the gameplay.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Today, I patched a few more things with Escape Tower. I've wanted to roll this out for a while, but I procrastinated until I discovered a game-breaking bug (which I'll explain shortly). So let's get started, shall we?

Improves game scaling. Escape a Tower now utilizes the new and improved scaling code introduced from Button Masher v4.1.

Explains how to play with fewer words. As we all know, the fewer the words, the better.

The game is now playable on Safari private browsing mode. Here's the game-breaking bug I was talking about. In previous versions, the game wouldn't start in this instance because Safari would refuse to write in Local Storage. To work around this, I added some flags so Safari private browsing mode would disregard the Local Storage code.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

FINALLY! After procrastinating for over two years, Mouse Swipe has officially released to Tim's Slideshow Games!

Back in Summer 2013, my friend Kaizad Taraporevala suggested that in addition to Button Masher/Keyboard Masher, there should be a game about moving your mouse back and forth. I thought it was a fantastic idea at the time, and while I attempted to develop the game, I kept losing focus and motivation. And whenever I DID have a spark of motivation, I ended up supplying updates to Button Masher/Keyboard Masher instead, leaving Mouse Swipe in the dust. After feeling a tinge of guilt enough times whenever I see the "Mouse Swipe" folder on my computer, I figured now's the time to take action. I promised a game, and now I'm willing to deliver it once and for all!

Mouse Swipe features four different game modes:

Freeform - Swipe your mouse across the vertical line as swift as you can! Play in 10 seconds, 30 seconds, or a custom time.

Square - Swipe within two fixed squares. There's a normal and hard mode, which shrinks the squares over time.

Triangle - Swipe clockwise within three fixed triangles. Just like Square, there's a normal and hard mode.

Motion - Swipe within two moving squares. If you liked Button Masher Oscillation, you'll feel at home with this mode.

In addition to Mouse Swipe, Keyboard Masher receives a substantial update (version 4.3). As you can see in the screenshot, Battle mode has been renamed to Versus, which I think is a much more fitting name. There is also a new gauge bar to view at a glance who's winning and by how much. This should make Versus matches more compelling to compete in and watch!

First, it was the button. Then, it was the keyboard. And now, your entire computer mouse gets to join in the fun! The idea for this game was originally thought of by Kaizad Taraporevala.Mouse Swipe is part of the Masher Series, a collection of mashing related games. Check out Button Masher and Keyboard Masher, the other games in the series.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Apple announced the iPad Pro in their special event today, and I have to say, it's very impressive. Its screen size is listed at 12.9 inches, which is bigger than many laptops in the market today, including Apple's own 12 inch MacBook.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

To celebrate the fourth anniversary of this blog, I am revealing another milestone in my game making career: my first ever multiplayer game! The game mode, Battle, involves two players and is available in today's Keyboard Masher update (version 4.2).

Friday, August 14, 2015

That's right, it's time for the first Bingo Master Board update in over three years! I know I've previously stated that I wouldn't update my PowerPoint projects anymore, but after revisiting this one and remembering some old feedback I've received, I decided to give the Bingo Master Board some additional refinements.

In layman's terms, this is the release notes:

Visual improvements

But you know me, I love getting deeper than that. Unlike the creators of the Facebook app who don't write release notes anymore, I get in depth with everything I've tweaked and perfected in each update so current users can make a more educational choice whether or not to update (and I really hope you do).

So allow me to explain what "visual improvements" really means.

Backgrounds are more vibrant. I've tweaked the colors of every single theme (except for Rainbow) so they look more visually appealing than ever before.

Faded numbers are more visible and easier on the eyes. Before, the faded numbers on every theme were light gray, which would clash with several themes. Now, the faded number colors have been specifically tailored for every theme (except for Rainbow) for much improved visual clarity.

Transitions are slightly faster. Who likes to wait due to unnecessary fade in effects? That's why I've tweaked the transitions so they still look good while allowing you to navigate more quickly.

No more underlined text. I don't get why I was into this, since underlines don't look visually pleasing on computers. They're gone now.

Along with these visual improvements, here are some other minor changes.

The About slide has been redesigned.

There are now steps on customizing a theme in PowerPoint 2013 and newer.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Now it's possible to browse through most of the older versions of my projects! To access the archive, click on the new link, Archive, on the top navigation bar. Along with the links/downloads, there are notes written about every version posted. Who knows, you might learn some cool trivia about the development of my games!

Keep in mind that some archived versions have been modified from its original. I only did this if there were any game-breaking bugs from the original that needed to be patched. Other than that, I did NOT touch any other aspect of the game.

I hope you're able to learn something new or at least get a good laugh from the archive.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

If you have a keen eye, you may have noticed that bold text looks a tad better than before, especially if you've been using Chrome for Mac.

Why is this? Well it turns out when I previously changed the blog font to PT Sans, Blogger never imported the bold version of the font. This meant that whenever I specified bold text in my blog, it was up to your browser to render the font. The result was what's known as faux bold. This would make bold text appear blurry for most browsers, and on Chrome for Mac, bold was barely visible if at all.

To remedy this, I manually imported the bold version of PT Sans from Google Fonts to this blog. Now every browser should see the true bold PT Sans, not the fake one.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Remember Deal or No Deal? You know, that crazy game show with Howie Mandel, a bunch of briefcases, and the extreme anxiety along the contestants and their family members?

Well guess what: now YOU get to join in the zany action! YOU get to relive the experience right in your living room with your own family and friends, and YOU don't have to spend a single penny! Behold, my custom-brewed Deal or No Deal template!

Friday, May 29, 2015

Just moments ago, I was thrown into a special surprise party run by Everglow Youth. This momentous event would prove to greatly enhance my confidence.

It all started when the youth group escorted me to a group of tables, cheering wildly for my high school graduation. We then partook a pizza dinner which was well planned out. I knew this would be a fantastic party, but little did I anticipate what would happen next.

Monday, April 27, 2015

Last month, I published the Button Masher Strategy Guide, providing a myriad of strategies to amp up your game. Now it's Keyboard Masher's turn. If you're seeking to become so good at keyboard mashing that you'll become a viral maniac on YouTube, welcome aboard!

Achievement Star Requirements

Blue star - Beat one of the beat the creator scores.

Green star - Beat every single beat the creator score.

Bronze star - Reach 2500 presses (Typing on Task).

Silver star - Reach 10000 presses (Typing Tempest).

Gold star - Become a typing typhon (25,000 presses).

Keep in mind that the green star overwrites the blue star, and the gold star overwrites the silver star, which overwrites the bronze star.

Tips and Tricks

Play when you're angry. Keyboard mashing is supposed to be frantic, and when you're angry, you become more crazed and hyper. Consider playing a frustrating video game to pre-anger yourself.

Learn to play the piano. I once met a guy who was good at Keyboard Masher, and I mean REALLY good (over 1700 on 30 seconds). When I asked him how he got those scores, he told me that he played the piano when he was younger. I can see how this may have helped him.

Find the keyboard that best suits you. Not all keyboards are created equal. For instance, a laptop keyboard has a different feel from a full sized keyboard. Also, some keyboards require more force to press a key than others. I recommend using a mechanical keyboard if you can afford it; it makes typing more pleasant.

Arrow Mode Tips - I have my left index finger on the up key, and three fingers from my right hand on the left, down, and right keys. What I do is repeatedly press the key on the screen until the arrow changes. This is because sometimes, the key stays the same. And since you're using different fingers for every key, it's easy to switch off when the arrow key changes.

However, in Arrow (360), I use only my right hand. I find that with a predetermined set of arrows to press, it's easier to use one hand than two.

Alphabet Mode Tips - While it's possible to complete this mode by mashing the keyboard, it's actually more time efficient to legitimately type the letters. Also, try not to look at your keyboard when typing, as that could either slow you down or cause you to yell swear words when you realize you forgot to type the letter D. Practice, practice, practice!

Alphabet (Backwards) may seem intimidating at first, but you'll get the hang of it once you start memorizing the letters you need to press. Keep practicing!

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Welcome to Mouse Swipe, the third game in the Masher Series. In this game, your goal is to swipe your cursor across the vertical line as many times as you can.

Since this is a demo, only 10 second mode is included. The full game will feature additional game modes that I still need to think of. Fortunately, any save data from this prototype will be transferred to the full game once it's released.

If you have any thoughts on this prototype or ideas for game modes related to mouse swiping, feel free to post a comment. I'd greatly appreciate all the feedback I get during this testing phase.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Two weeks ago, I uploaded the Button Masher update, which contained a series of improvements such as a restart button, settings panel, incremental achievements, and more. Now it's Keyboard Masher's turn.

Keyboard Masher v4.1 contains the main improvements from Button Masher v4.1 plus the following enhancements:

Two new game modes: Arrow (360) and Alphabet (Backwards). Arrow (360) involves pressing the arrow keys in a clockwise pattern (up, right, down, left). Alphabet (Backwards) should be self explanatory. I think you'll enjoy these modes.

Typing Typhon achievement reduced from 200,000 to 25,000 presses. Once again, we finally have a reasonable goal for Keyboard Masher's highest rank. Who knows, you may already have an achievement star on your profile.

Alphabet mode now shows letters in lowercase. I made this change to reduce the confusion with Alphabet mode. You don't need caps lock on, guys!

Note: if you managed to beat all my scores from the previous version, you may notice that your green achievement star has changed its color to blue. That's because you haven't beaten my scores from the new game modes. So if you want your green star back, get to it!

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

So you want to get good at Button Masher? Are you determined to conquer every single beat the creator score and rack up all the achievement stars? If so, you made it to the right place. Here, you will discover a trove of tips and tricks directly from the game creator to maximize each and every one of your scores!

Achievement Star Requirements

Blue star - Beat one of the beat the creator scores.

Green star - Beat every single beat the creator score.

Bronze star - Reach 1000 clicks (Clicker Star).

Silver star - Reach 5000 clicks (Clicker Master).

Gold star - Become a clicker god (10,000 clicks).

Keep in mind that the green star overwrites the blue star, and the gold star overwrites the silver star, which overwrites the bronze star.

Tips and Tricks

Use two fingers. I can't stress this one more than enough. The best way to rack up points is by alternating two fingers at the button.

Use a computer mouse. Maybe it's just me, but I find that I earn more points using a computer mouse than a laptop touchpad. A mouse also helps when playing game modes such as Movement and Oscillation, so you can keep your two finger momentum going when moving the cursor.

If you're on a laptop, enable tap to click. This is the next best method to click if you can't use a computer mouse. After all, you use less energy tapping the touchpad than physically clicking on it. Just make sure your two fingers are far enough so you don't accidentally right click.

Lightning Mode Tips - I start out by pressing and holding the button with one finger, while touching the mouse with another finger. Then, when I let go of the first finger, I quickly click with the second one, as it's already touching the mouse. This may not always work due to trial and error, but you'll really see the results when it does.

Endurance Mode Tips - This is the one mode I do NOT recommend using the two finger technique. Instead, use one index finger to click the button at a steady pace while keeping your other index finger nearby. That way, when one of your fingers gets tired, you can quickly switch to clicking with the other finger while giving one of your hands a break.

Movement Mode Tips - I place two of my left hand fingers on the mouse button, and my entire right hand holding the mouse. When I play, I keep using the two finger tactic to click, even when the button moves to another place. This is so I could generate the maximum amount of points with each button since sometimes, the button stays in the same place. Only use your right hand to move the cursor around.Of course, I don't do this in Hard mode since you lose a point for each misclick. In that mode, I just use one hand and click carefully.

Oscillation Mode Tips - Again, use two fingers with your left hand to click and your right hand to move the cursor. However, this one's a little harder since the button is in motion the entire time. All I can say for this is to practice and find the right rhythm to move the cursor. Remember that the button speeds up every ten seconds.

I hope these tactics help you out to become a new and improved button masher. Good luck out there.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

This is the first step of updating the Masher Series. The procedure is to update Button Masher and Keyboard Masher, create mobile versions of each of those games, and, with the new underlying code, create a brand new game for the series. I was originally going to release everything at once, but instead, I decided to stagger the process. And it begins with the Button Masher update.

So what's packed in this update? Let's check it out!

Adds a restart button to each game mode. Ever had those moments when your fingers slipped while playing and wanted to redo the game mode as a result? Now, instead of waiting for the timer to run out, just click on the arrow next to the score to restart the mode.

New settings panel. I added this increase the game's flexibility. For instance, if you have a friend playing this game and don't want him or her to overwrite your scores, you can disable the ability to save high scores. This also applies to background color changes and commentary.

Adds navigation arrows. Before, if you selected a game mode you didn't mean to click on, you had to refresh the page to select a different mode. Now you don't have to; just click on the new arrows to take you back to certain areas of the game.

The game can now resize down to a width of 600 pixels. The benefits are twofold. For one, it makes the game more playable if you have two windows side by side. Also, it prepares the game to be playable on tablets someday.

Clicker God requirement reduced from 100,000 to 10,000 clicks. For the first time ever, the Clicker God achievement is realistically attainable. I hope this gives you guys more incentive to rack up more clicks.

Oscillation mode is now easier on normal difficulty. I decided to slow down the button after hearing feedback about it moving too fast even on normal. Hard mode, however, is unchanged.

New incremental achievement stars. In the previous version, there were only two achievement stars, one for beating all the beat the creator scores and another for becoming a clicker god. To provide more incentive to reach these goals, I've added additional achievement stars you can get along the way. For instance, you now get an achievement star for beating one of my beat the creator scores.

Minor changes

Formatting fixes for Firefox and Safari

Achievement stars automatically appear without having to refresh

Optimizes title font for Linux

Yup, that's one long list, and I hope these changes help make Button Masher more enjoyable to play. The Keyboard Masher update, which will feature most of these changes plus other features, is coming soon.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Introducing music to Games by Tim! In addition to making games, I've developed an interest in composing music with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). I'm still a beginner, but I hope someday to create music good enough for future games to come.

To start off, I present Intervals of Harmony, created with Logic Pro X and completed on July 13, 2014. It features a simple melody, with instruments gradually entering in to enhance the music. Enjoy!

To download the MP3, right click the audio player and select "Save audio as."

Monday, February 23, 2015

Vista Point V2 was completed on October 2012 and was created using PowerPoint shapes. The goal was to improve upon the first Vista Point artwork by adding more detail, making the colors more vibrant, and improving the use of gradients.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

I was play testing version 2.6 with my friends the other day, and we all concluded that the sophisticated number guesser could become even more sophisticated. Behold, the result of our ideas: version 2.6.1!

After you guess, you can now press the enter key to go back to the guessing screen. If you're playing on a desktop, you're going to love this.

An error message now appears if you guess out of your number range. Say you're guessing between 1 and 1000. The game is now smart enough to not accept your guess if it's below 1 or over 1000!

If you lose Internet while playing, you'll no longer lose access to this game if you go to the main menu. This should be a relief if you're playing on the go.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

You know it's a huge update whenever I feature a game's logo and version number at the beginning of a post.

Welcome to version 2.6, a spectacular update to the "I am Thinking of a Number" series. After a multitude of bug fixes to the 2.5 branch, it's about time for a new feature release. The focus is on productivity; each feature is designed to enhance your number guessing efficiency.

So let's get right to the release notes.

Adds the ability to choose the starting number. Ever wanted to guess between 10 and 50 or -223 to -32? Now you can! The starting number to guess from is no longer locked at 1. You can change it to whatever integer you want, even negative numbers!

The game now keeps track of the numbers you guess. If you're guessing with a number set, any number you've already guessed will now appear blue. If you're guessing with an input field, a list of guessed numbers will appear on the bottom of the page. This comes in handy whenever you're guessing from a large number range.

Input field auto focus. Now whenever you're guessing with an input field, you no longer have to click on the input field to start typing your number. It automatically does that for you!

Defaults to the numeric keyboard on mobile devices. If you're playing on an iPhone or iPad, you no longer have to change your keyboard setting to number mode every time you guess. That's one less tap on your end!

Other minor tweaks.

If you guess a number wrong, the game now informs what you just guessed.

If you're on iOS or OS X, the default font has changed to Helvetica Neue, the font used on OS X Yosemite.

Enabling the greater than or less than hint no longer triggers an alert box. That's one less click to deal with!

Increases the size of the input fields.

Updates the About page.

The dialogue is less harsh if you use hints.

So as you can see, the game is a lot more sophisticated now. You'll be guessing faster than ever, which will make it even easier for you to become a professional number guesser. So what are you waiting for? Let's get guessing!

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Today, I continue to improve this blog by uploading a new version of the logo. It may look the same as the previous one, but there are some key differences. For one, the background is now transparent. This is how I wanted the logo to look in the first place, but since I didn't know how to do that three years ago, I used a workaround of making the background white with the rest of the layout. Also, the colors are more vibrant. It also happens to use less height than the previous logo did.

For the record, here are the two logos side by side. See if you can spot the difference.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Today, I went through the blog and changed some of the styling. Here's what has changed:

The default font changed from Cambria to PT Sans. To make the blog look more modern like, I replaced the font with something that's sans-serif. It looks better now (in my opinion).

The title description is gone. I removed it because I don't really think it's necessary anymore. Plus, I think you'll like the extra usable height on the blog now.

Fixed an Internet Explorer layout bug. I took a peek at the blog's source code, and it turns out there's a tag that calls Internet Explorer to emulate IE7 regardless of what version you're using! Considering IE7 is four versions behind, I removed that code so the blog looks WAY better on modern Internet Explorer.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Man, this is so exciting. But before I jump around and go nuts, I should probably explain why I'm like this.

Background

First of all, I'd like to share that this update was supposed to be released back in 2012. In fact, I had most of the groundwork for this update finished back then, but somehow, I never actually completed it.

So why did I abandon this long awaited update until now? Well, you may recall that a while back, I decided to stop making PowerPoint games. I was tired of working hard on some project only for others to not be able to appreciate it, since they don't have PowerPoint installed. So for the next two years, I spent my time developing HTML5 games. I still had this update on my radar during that time though.

Now fast forward to 2015. This year, I have devised a new years resolution, and that is to complete the backlog of game development I've started but never finished. Last Sunday, I kicked off the resolution by releasing "I am Thinking of a Number" version 2.5, which was supposed to be released last April. Today, I continue to accomplish my goal through this update, which is overdue by two years.

So without further ado, it's time for me to discuss the release notes for v2.0. It's huge!

Release Notes

The first thing you'll notice when you load the update is that there is now a title slide. Thrilling, right? You can flaunt this slide at your next game show party to get people into the excitement. But that's only the beginning.

As you proceed to the puzzle board, other thrilling changes become apparent. You'll notice that the default fonts have changed. Calibri has been replaced with Corbel (except for the Beta theme). Seriously, it looks a lot less default like and more professionally playful (yes, an oxymoron). The puzzle board's font has changed from Britannic to Arial (except for Beta), which is indeed the current font of the real Wheel of Fortune puzzle board. The more authentic, the better!

You'll also discover a new menu button: Clear Board. In the old version, when you wanted to start a new puzzle, you had to manually delete all the characters on the puzzle board one at a time, and that got annoying fast. No more! Just click that button and a blink of the eye, the board is blank! This will save you lots of a time on your next game show event!

But the time savings don't end there. On every player slot, there are three new icons I'd like to call functionality keys. The orange circle is for buying a vowel, which automatically deducts $250 from the player's round total. The blue arrow is for quickly transferring round money to their totals. Last but not least, The X instantly drops a player's round total to 0, so use that for bankrupts or starting a new round. As you can see, every functionality key is designed to reduce the amount of calculating you'll need to do so you can focus more on the fun.

The changes aren't over yet. The wheel itself has been updated to resemble more like the real game show. I changed the $5000 wedge to $2500, which is what the wheel from the real show uses. The bankrupt wedge and wild card space shifted to their proper positions. Finally, to make things more interesting, I added the narrow $10000 wedge. I know it's $1 million in the current format, but since you're not actually winning real money from this (unless your host is abnormally generous), I chose the $10000 version instead.

So are you pumped? You bet I am! *hops around like a maniac* Happy playing!

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Timothy kicks off the year with a relatively big update for I am Thinking of a Number. In fact, it's so huge that he skipped version 2.4 and headed straight for 2.5! *gasp*Enough third person talk. Let's discuss the release notes.

Adds the ability to guess the number with an input field. Now you can guess numbers above 50,000 without crashing your browser!

Mobile device support. The game now looks significantly better on smartphones and tablets. And just like in Escape a Tower, you can add the game to your home screen on iOS for full screen mode!

New favicon. The favicon symbolizes this game's original intent; guessing a number between 1 and 1,000.

Bug fix. Looks like my try catch statement from the previous version messed up the confirmation box if you selected a number above 50,000. This has been fixed. I apologize to anyone who crashed their browser from this.

Various minor tweaks.

Note: This is the first update since v2.2 that increases the game's file size. Also, the game is no longer compatible with Opera 8.50 (hopefully no one's using that in the first place).So enjoy the update, folks!